Articles

On November 6, 2014, FairVote is releasing its projections for congressional elections for the November 2016 elections nearly two years away. We project vote percentages in all districts and winners in nearly 86% of races. See our summary of projections and download our spreadsheet that provides detailed information on projections in your district and allows you to see the implications of an open seat, partisan waves, or more incumbent-friendly voting patterns.

One of the most important implications of the U.S. census is its use as a basis for revising the states' legislative and congressional districts. Guest columnists Bill Finkbeiner and Krist Novoselic urge changes in the Washington state law to depoliticize the process and encourage citizen involvement.

The trouble begins with two seemingly innocent facts: The Constitution requires a census of the population every 10 years, and the 14th Amendment requires that states and cities redistrict legislative lines so that they have the same number of residents per representative. Such population corrections to district lines might seem relatively benign - a task for a few computer-savvy interns able to move the necessary thousands of people from one district to another based on some reasonable criteria. But redistricting instead has become the worst of political blood sports.

Anthony Gottlieb reviews “Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, from Plato to the Present,” a new book by George Szpiro, a journalist and mathematician. The book—and Gottlieb’s essay—are about a subject that got its teeth around my ankle years ago and refuses to let go: voting systems.

In a midterm election that otherwise brought grim news, progressive Oakland city councilwoman Jean Quan scored a stunning upset of Don Perata, described by East Bay Express reporter Robert Gammon as "the East Bay's king of big money campaigns."